Review of Impostor (2001) by Gabriel Arthur P — 03 Apr 2016

This film kind of drags, but it's worth watching once. The problem is that once you see the ending, it doesn't have anywhere near the same suspense or impact the second time because you already know the trick.

There are some neat effects, decent enough acting, good camera work and other technical aspects. But I had to include the acting in "technical aspects" because between Gary Sinise, Madeleine Stowe and for crying out loud Vincent D'Onofrio, I don't think there's a non-wooden performance between them.

I consider all three of them to be fairly unreadable actors (and D'Onofrio to be particularly annoying to boot) and I can only imagine the decision making behind putting such a trifecta together. Maybe it had something to do with making sure there was no way the actors could possibly telegraph the movie's magic trick secret to the audience.

I give it three out of five stars, because even a one-trick pony can look good. Now, the story takes place in 2079 and is about a weapons designer and his wife fighting to regain their sanity In A World where red-scare-like paranoia keeps security measures solid -- despite errors.

A detective thinks he knows what's really going on, but we're given ample reasons to believe the detective is just being measurably paranoid. Since D'Onofrio (the detective) is exceptionally gifted at being grating and impersonable, the audience is left to their own glitch-fed devices.

Epileptics be warned, the high-contrast two-frame flashbacks come fast and furious and guerrilla camerawork often blends with spot-lit black interiors mixed with MTV-style fast-cut angles. This film actually hurts the eyes.

I take it back: two out of five.